No Shock If Va. Roads Stir A Cause

Get Serious!

Seems the state legislature can't make up its mind how to come up with road money. If they don't agree on something, the highway people may be short of cash for their projects.

But so are a lot of other groups. I know that because I get mail all the time from organizations asking me to fork over some money for their good causes.

Maybe the highway people will have to do the same. I won't be surprised, then, if the following appeals start showing up in my mailbox:

PRESERVE VIRGINIA'S PAVED HERITAGE!

From the mountains to the ocean, from the valley to the bay, our state is blessed with beauty. And what holds that beauty together?

Highways.

Virginia's highway heritage is one of its most precious possessions. George Washington surveyed Virginia roads. Robert E. Lee rode his horse on Virginia roads. Booker T. Washington walked on Virginia roads to get to Hampton. Harry F. Byrd liked to build roads.

Roads aren't just our heritage -- they're our historic heritage. From the past. And you know what that means in Virginia.

But there's no guarantee there will be roads for future generations -- unless you help.

Imagine a Virginia without its abundance of highways, byways, limited-access parkways and secondary roads. Imagine your children and your children's children, unable to enjoy a "road trip." Is that the future we want to leave them?

"Oh, it can't be that serious," you may say. "A couple fewer roads, so what?"

But the highway ecology is a delicate balance of interrelationships. Without new roads, how can there be new roadside development? Our strip malls, our fast-food restaurants, our Wawa markets and Waffle Houses, all depend on roads for their sustenance.

It's not too late.

Virginia's road system can be saved if you act now. Send your check today to the Asphalt Conservancy. It's the nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving our transportation environment.

Remember: Without its highways, Virginia is just a lot of places you can't get to.

Or maybe this:

POTHOLES ARE ALL IT HAS EVER KNOWN.

This is Route 696. A small, young road, curving though a beautiful area of rural Virginia.

It's a road with dreams of the future: dreams that, someday, it will grow up to have intersections, turn lanes, traffic lights -- maybe even someday be multi-laned.

But for little Route 696, those dreams are blighted by poverty. There isn't enough money to keep it maintained, to repaint its center stripe, to scrape the dead possums off of it. And worst of all, no money to fix the potholes that cruelly disfigure it, dooming it to a life of being shunned and detoured around.

Only you can restore Route 696's dreams.

For just a dollar a day -- less than you'd spend on the toll over the Coleman Bridge -- you can sponsor Route 696, or another Virginia road much like it. You can assure that it is loved and cared for and has the opportunity to be all the road that it can be.

A highway maintenance worker will send you periodic letters, with photographs, informing you of your road's progress. You'll share its pride as it grows strong and healthy enough to carry big 18-wheelers!

For more information, write to Save Our Secondary Roads. It'll be the most rewarding relationship you've ever had with pavement.

Who knows -- someday, you may be able to drive on Route 696 yourself! Look out for the speed trap, just outside of town.

Or this:

BE A PART OF THE BRIDGE-TUNNEL!

Would you like to be part of something bigger than all of us? The proposed third crossing of Hampton Roads is that big. And you can share in the excitement, in a permanent and very personal way!

Thanks to this exclusive offer from the Macadam Mint, you can have your very own concrete slab installed as part of the new bridge-tunnel, permanently engraved with your name. These paving slabs will be fabricated from the mint's own premium-grade, museum-quality concrete, guaranteed to contain at least 20 percent pulverized Carrara marble.

Order your personalized bridge slab, and for just half the price more (plus shipping and handling) you can get a duplicate slab, delivered to your home. It will be a distinctive paperweight or doorstop.

Order within seven days, and we also will send, absolutely free, a genuine highway work crew traffic-directing reversible "Slow/Stop" sign. Just like the ones the pros use!

Imagine the pride you'll feel, knowing that thousands of cars per day are whizzing over your own personal paving slab. On extra-busy days, they may even stop long enough to read your name!

Payment to the Macadam Mint will be in easy, affordable monthly installments. You'll be all paid up in the brief period of time it takes our contractors to finish the bridge!

There, one of those appeals might work. Otherwise, we can start holding bake sales.

Tony Gabriele can be reached at 247-4786 or by e-mail at tgabriele@dailypress.com. *